IV. Madách International Theatre Meeting

The Dance of Death (danse macabre) is an allegorical genre originating in the late Middle Ages; its distinctive stylistic features are found in poetry, the visual arts, music, and the art of the theatre art as well. It looks back on a long and distinguished history in the area around Bergamo. The theatrical company of the town does not reconstruct the genre, but rather revitalizes it by composing a contemporary danse macabre: a 20^th-century symphony of sounds and voices. When the “light” traveller arrives, the dance of curtains begins, revealing a topsy-turvy world full of joking skeletons and dancing angels. The world that unfolds before us is comic, but also threatening and sensual. The traveller dances and enters the four rooms of the building: the garden of the dead, the corridor of angels, the halls of the ceremonial dinner and of the last dance. One always changes upon returning from another world. Perhaps we see the comings and goings of the world best from the grave. The title of the show comes from a colour nuance: Hexadecimal 9F000F is a tone of red, also called “angelic,” like the dark raspberry colour of the curtains. Rosso Angelico is a hybrid performance of theatre and dance, combining words and music, Asian traditions and western traditions, live music and recorded music, quotes from texts by the poet Rilke and texts by the great Italian comedian Totò.